The present application relates to an illuminating device including a light modulation device showing scattering characteristics or transparency to light and a display unit.
In recent years, high image quality and energy saving of a liquid crystal display have been suddenly progressed. A method of realizing improvement of dark place contrast by partially modulating light intensity of a backlight has been proposed. In this method, mainly backlight light is modulated according to the display image by partially driving a Light Emitting Diode (LED) used as a light source of the backlight. Further, in a large-screen liquid crystal display, a thinner display has been increasingly demanded as in a small-screen liquid display. Thus, instead of the system in which a Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (CCFL) or an LED is arranged directly below a liquid crystal panel, the edge light system in which a light source is arranged in an end section of a light guide plate has attracted attention. However, in the edge light system, it is difficult to perform partial driving for partially modulating light intensity of the light source.